Are you a programmer? Then one of these plans will work for you, if you know a bit of Javascript, CSS, HTML and perhaps some database programming.

Are you an artist? Then the latter plan will work very well for you. It’s free to start and it will be an encouragement to keep honing your artistic skills. Keep reading!

PLAN 1: The Tool Niche Website

Build a website tool for planning a wedding. For a programmer it would be very easy to put together a “form” generator website. In fact, there are lots of free scripts online for creating a website tool. Yes, it would take some elbow grease! But you can also imagine how much time you could help save for others!

A tool, no matter how easy to use makes something better or easier in some way. Some websites provide spell checking. Others provide heat maps for your website (which show you where people click and go with their eyes on your web pages). Other generate random things that are useful for quickly coming up with characters for a novel.

These tools aren’t overly complicated for a person who has a bit of skill in programming.

Each of these tools provides a simple benefit: they gather some sort of resource, reorganize it and simplify it. They make things faster. They can do more, of course.

Can you think of a few things that take too long to do?

What about fixing a video game console? There could be a simple website tool that gets how-to-fix-a-video-game console instructions from other sites and grabs the videos from them, puts them in a big wide video window to help the user get to fixing quicker.

Would you find that useful if you had a broken product laying around the house that you really wanted to fix?

What about a tool that makes any recipe link you put in it become a visual recipe? It grabs images from a lot of ingredient images(milk cartons, cheese, eggs, flour, etc) and puts them into a nice viewable layout that people can use from their smart phone or tablet, right in the kitchen. Would that be useful to you, when you went to cook something new and interesting? Would it be better than simply squinting at a page you printed out from a text-only recipe site?

These are only the first ideas that came to mind to me, but there can be more exotic and strange tools that you may be able to imagine.

But don’t go too overboard.

Look for things that you would find very useful, even the smallest of functions that can a) speed up a process b) improve a process c) make an already available function easier to understand d) gathers things together faster e) randomize certain elements or re-organize them in different useful fashions.

These are generic frameworks for some niche website tools that you could create. What are you waiting for? Do you have an idea? Jot down a mind map and start programming to make an early prototype that works.

Depending on your skill level in a given programming language such as PHP, Java and HTML. But don’t be discouraged if you don’t program well. You can learn to code in just a few hours — click here to visit Code Academy. I’ve tried it personally to brush up on my CSS skills, and I believe you could do it, too, as many others have as well! The Code Academy niche tool website is an example of what you want to build–a niche tool website!

After you’ve made your website tool, here are a few pages you may opt to build in order to help your site get ranked a bit quicker.

The Plan

How to Start

About the Tool on page 1 (a short descriptive paragraph of its function, how it was inspired and why it is useful)

How to Use & a Long FAQ on page 2 (Don’t forget this page! Many tools go without the needed walkthrough video or step by step picture tutorial, leaving users feeling abandoned. You can include this on the front page, too.)

Buy the Full Version on page 3 (Perhaps an offline tool would be better? How about more features for the complete version? Price it reasonably and you may have a tool website that really attracts customers)

Contact Us on page 4 (in case it breaks!)

Copyright& Terms on page 5 (describing how you use information on the website)

Recently Made on page 6 (an optional page that displays what other users made; this can be very engaging to the community if done right)

Other Tools on page 7 (perhaps you’ll find a branch-off from your main tool and create other domains with similiar tools after the first has success)

You’ll need to make a nice logo, a great nicely spaced layout with colors that complement the function and branding of the tool. Also be sure to include a clear call to action such as “Subscribe to Get a Free Trial of the Full Version!” – make sure the key offering gets noticed quickly and stands out above the rest of the features of your webpage.

Things to remember:

Don’t ask for registration, make it quickly usable without forcing people to sign up via email (reduces usability drastically)

Don’t break the product into multiple purchases that are over priced (lowers satisfaction)

Don’t say its free if that’s not true (dishonesty)

Be clear, easy to understand and kind in all the copy you write (good practice)

Continue to hone the service you are providing until it is easy enough that when you ask anyone to try it out, they will be able to get a result quickly without you being there to assist.

PLAN 2: The Artist Diary Niche Website

Do you paint? Acrylic? Oil? Photoshop concept art? Pencil?

Pick a subject that you primarily paint and start a niche website based on that. Don’t worry about keywords or anything like that. Start doing your best to make your very best art. Design the way you want to teach people how to paint, and give clear instructions. Get lots of close ups in your videos.

Get a screen capture tool that works for you. There are a lot of them, some paid and others are free. Get one that works with your computer and make sure your computer has enough ram to run a high quality recording for at least 20 minutes at a time. Break up a tutorial into sections, add writing between videos.

What you’ll need:

Moderate artistic skill

New Youtube Account with “painting” or “drawing” or “sketching” in the name

A medium that you specialize in – Paper and pen, Photoshop, Oil, Wet on Wet, Etc

A specific subject that you specialize in drawing or painting – “Tigers” or “Mountain Landscapes” or “Abstract Illusion”, for example

A digital camera and tripod if you are doing physical drawing or painting

A screen capture software if you are doing digital drawing or painting

Good camera placement and clear, loud sound quality (silent with captions is great too!)

Free blogspot.com account – Recommended, so that you don’t waste money if you decide to bail

Since it may be the first time you start on actually showing your art to people, you may be shy. But get through the first couple of videos or picture tutorials on your new website and you’ll get the hang of it. Then you’ll be astonished to find that people actually appreciate your tutorials, even if you do very basic paintings, sketches or concept art in a digital paint program. A specific and consistent subject is best for this type of website.

The Plan

Plan:

The Artist Diary

Costs:

$10+ domain, $30+ hosting, $25+ art supplies

Difficulty:

Easy to Moderate

Content:

Self

Marketing:

None

Monetization:

Pay Per Click, Affiliate, Unique Product

How to Start

About You on page 1 (your credentials, inspiration, a story from childhood that inspired you to begin)

Very Specific Art Subject on page 2 (describe what the medium is, what specific subject is that you paint so well and why you paint it. Write from the heart!)

Donate on page 3 (you can monetize brushes, but a donate button can work very well)

My Art on page 4 (commissioned and free)

Free Resources on page 5 (links to your favorite artists)

Contact Me on page 6

Notice something different? That’s right, this is a plan that is personal, tied in to you. Be clear, freely giving support to younger and less experienced artists. Give encouragement generously. Encouragement will blossom into friendships with many people online and you’ll have far more fun running the website on your off-time. You have the option of making videos, doing in-depth technique pages, and other interesting things like Favorite Supplies posts.

Please remember: we don’t browse the web looking to read complaints, most people want useful suggestions and advice on an artist’s website. Avoid making it a sounding board for those kinds of things. Also don’t put up offensive content that you wouldn’t allow a 5 year old to see. It’s always a good practice to be professional, even on a personal niche website.

In this post we won’t discuss ways to monetize an art niche website or a software niche website. We will take a look at these aspects in a seperate post, so if you’d like to learn about that come by soon!